Antioxidant Revolution [Paperback]

Kenneth H. Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 1997

From the groundbreaker in preventive medicine and father of the worldwide aerobics movement, Dr. Cooper takes the latest scientific antioxidant search from around the world and brings you a simple four step life plan that will revolutionize your health. It's the simplest plan yet to build you own personal defense system for a longer, healthier life!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Cooper and his center hit big some 20 years ago with Aerobics, which, like his Controlling Cholesterol (1988), is one of the all-time best-selling health self-help books. Here he combines his aerobic approach to better health with diet and dietary supplement strategies designed to cope with free radicals, the unstable oxygen molecules that recent research has fingered for aiding and abetting heart disease, cancer, cataracts, and various complaints attendant upon the aging process. The most marked departure from his former advice, he says, is a new skepticism about very frequent high-intensity exercise. That skepticism arises, however, from cases such as those that Cooper reports of people who were regular strenuous exercisers and yet came down with quickly fatal diseases. Accordingly, the exercise program he recommends here is lower-intensity. With the publisher's powerful push--100,000-copy first printing, quarter-million-dollar marketing budgetand also because it is efficiently and accessibly written, count on high interest. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 18, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785275258
• ISBN-13: 978-0785275251
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #393,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New Recommendations Supplant the Info in this Book, July 11, 2000

By 

paul mcl (Ft Worth, TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antioxidant Revolution (Paperback)

This book is good in its underlying theme -- take antioxidants b-carotene, vit C, vit E to counter free radical damage -- but, evidently, its specific recommendations are outdated. Two sets of antioxidant dosages are recommended, a small dose for "health and longevity" exercisers, and a large dose for "athletic" exercisers, where the dividing line between types of exercisers is 50 aerobics points per week. Dr Cooper's latest recommendations, which can be found at cooperwellness.com, change the small and large dosages, and the dividing line has been changed to 150 aerobics points per week.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Antioxidant starter book, well founded throughout., February 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Antioxidant Revolution (Paperback)

A complete strategy of exercise and antioxidant supplementation is suggested in this book. The most important antioxidants are reviewed and explained thoroughly - what's really happening in your body. The amount of data given along with the clear explanations will cause you to start taking antioxidants and going to the gym.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Evidence not clear-cut as Cooper makes it out to be, April 21, 2001

By 

Gary F. Zeolla "Director of Darkness to Light... (Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Antioxidant Revolution (Paperback)

This book discusses ways to reduce the free radical damage that is thought to lead cancer and heart disease. Cooper presents ways to do so through exercise, diet, and supplements. And it the supplements part that is the most controversial of this book.

Dr. Cooper was one of the first noted fitness experts to recommend people start taking high doses of the antioxidant vitamins beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A), vitamin C, and vitamin E, along with the mineral selenium. He recommends taking levels that are several times the RDA for these nutrients.

Cooper cites many scientific studies that show high does of these antioxidants reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. However, this book was originally published in 1994, and more recent studies have not given unqualified support to these earlier studies. In fact, more recent studies have been mixed.

Some studies do show that taking antioxidants reduce risk, but other studies show there is no effect. I summarize many of these studies in a chapter on supplements in my book "Creationist Diet: Nutrition and God-given Foods According to the Bible." My conclusion is that there is some evidence for the benefit of taking antioxidants, but it is not clear-cut as Cooper makes it out to be. There may or may not be any benefit to the practice.

Further clouding whether to take these supplements is the risk of side effects. Fortunately, Cooper does list possible side effects one might experience.

Another issue that Cooper does not address is the cost factor. Vitamin C is rather inexpensive and vitamin E and selenium moderately so, but beta-carotene tends to be rather expensive. And beta-carotene is the antioxidant with the least evidence supporting it.

Given the split evidence, I would say that if money is tight, one should spend their money on healthy food, not supplements. It is foods like fruits and vegetables that have unqualified evidence for their health benefits. And Cooper does include information on what foods are highest in the antioxidants and how best to prepare them to retain the nutrients. And my book provides further details on what foods help to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

As for myself, I have tried taking antioxidants in the amounts Cooper recommends, but I ended up with some of the side effects he mentions. I even tried taking different brands and forms of each nutrient and still had problems. So I simply don't bother with them anymore and focus on eating a healthy diet instead.